Lord Drayson: The announcement made on 31 March this year referred to the integration of the force protection activities undertaken by the Royal Air Force Police and the Royal Air Force Regiment, rather than to the structural integration of the two organisations. This integration will not impact on the ability of the Royal Air Force Police to undertake special investigations.

Baroness Andrews: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was formed in May 2002. Figures on management consultants cannot be disaggregated from those for external consultants, and the figures in the table below show all external consultants' costs and relate to ODPM central and its agencies.
	
		
			  2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 
			 ODPM central £76,000,000 £47,000,000 £79,831,087 £52,609,857 
			 Planning Inspectorate £3,222,478 £2,892,751 £2,824,751 £2,799,330 
			 Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre £11,016 £68,861 £79,635 £123,946 
			 Fire Service College £43,306 £152,279 £320,484 £345,580 
		
	
	The office has responded to the need to develop sustainable homes and communities, and consultants have been engaged to support the development of system processes. The skills required for these programmes were not available from civil servants. In addition, consultants have been engaged by ODPM to support the delivery of projects to enhance the ability of the fire and rescue service to respond to major incidents. The work undertaken by consultants includes providing radio engineering expertise for the fire and rescue service's new radio systems, and logistical support and design for responding to a chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear incident and search and rescue incidents. Some 60 per cent. of expenditure has been in support of these projects.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The most recent information shows that 15.23 per cent. of disabled people of working age who want to work are not in employment and are claiming state benefits, compared to 3.96 per cent. of the non-disabled working-age population.
	Note: These data are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) winter 2005 dataset. As the LFS is a self-reporting survey, it often underestimates the magnitude of benefit claims.

Lord Adebowale: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they are reviewing the announced allocations for the pooled drug treatment in (a) 2006–07, and (b) 2007–08.

Lord Adebowale: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the percentage increase in the pooled drug treatment for (a) 2006–07, and (b) 2007–08.

Lord Drayson: Since 1997 the Royal Air Force has provided a regular air service to the Falkland Islands, via Ascension Island. Since April 2003 this has been predominantly through the use of charter civilian aircraft. During this period 244 flights were made, of which records exist for 209. Based on these records, approximately 72 per cent. of flights departed on schedule and a further 18 per cent. were within six hours of the estimated time of departure. Approximately 6 per cent. of flights were delayed in excess of 24 hours. In cases where civilian aircraft were unable to support the service, outside the terms of the contract, appropriate military aircraft were substituted. This performance is considered acceptable, given the challenging nature of the route. Comparable records are not held for the period prior to April 2003.
	The Ministry of Defence is not aware of any plans to upgrade the aircraft currently operating the schedule, although this is principally a matter for the commercial operator.